JohnnyRotten

Back in November of 2005, I released a Travel Bug called "Carry That Weight." It was a 1 ounce fishing weight connected to the dog tag. In the description on the TB page, it said that the TB was born of the Beatles "Abbey Road" era, and would love to somehow make it over to Abbey Road. Some time after it's release, I kind of got away from geocaching. I got really busy with my business, and just didn't have the energy to get out much. I did maintain my premium membership though. Two nights ago, I went online and just for laughs I thought that I would look at Geocaching.com and then I looked at my profile, etc. When I started looking at my travel bugs, I noticed that Carry That Weight had over 13,000 miles on it. Not that the mileage was a record or anything, but it was the farthest traveled of any of my TB's. As I started looking at it, I noticed that there were some photos that Cachers had attached, and then I realized what I was looking at. There was a picture of a Cacher (redirected male) holding up the TB, in the crosswalk ON ABBEY ROAD!!!! All that was missing, was the VW with the "28IF" license plate. It literally sent shivers up my spine. Thank you ever so much to redirected male and the other cachers who made this incredible journey possible. To say the least, it made my day. It was truly a dream realized. I never thought that I would be jealous of one of my own travel bugs, but I guess I am.

I purchased a camera (Sony DSC-T100) from Broadway Photo LLC. 337 East 89th. Street Brooklyn, NY 11236 on Nov. 2, 2007. I made the transaction over the telephone. At the time, the salesman strongly advised me to purchase a 5 year extended warranty that I later found was offered by "Repair Tech." I was hesitant about the warranty, but he went on to state that the warranty covered many things that the manufacturers original warranty would not cover. He specifically stated that it would cover the camera being dropped. He even said that if I dropped and and accidentally stepped on it or dropped it into the toilet, IT WOULD BE COVERED. He went on to say that I would merely have to bring the camera to a Best Buy store, and they would replace it. Well low and behold, on Christmas Eve this year, my 22yr. old daughter placed the camera on the kitchen table and it was subsequently knocked onto the tile floor. The camera still works, but the unit is badly dented, and there are pieces of molding hanging off of it. I tried calling the 800 number for Repair Tech, and got a taped message telling me to call a (908) number here in NJ. When you call that number, the phone rings a few times, and then you get disconnected. After many attempts, I called Broadway Photo. The man on the phone emphatically stated that no warranty covers a camera being dropped. I asked to speak to a supervisor and spoke to a man named "Todd." He told me the same thing and I should maybe email Repair Tech to see what they could do. I told him what his salesman had stated and he said that it was incorrect. I asked him who salesman "#41 WH1" was, and he said that he had no way of checking that and he didn't even know if that person was still employed there. I called the NJ BBB this morning and they informed me that Repair Tech is in serious financial trouble and are probably filing Chapter 11. They advised me to contact the NY BBB. I cannot prove that this unscrupulous salesman lied to me, but at the same time, I'm not delirious nor am I prone to making up wild stories. I asked Todd to at least refund me the extended warranty, as the camera is only 15 months old and only 3 months into a 5 year warranty. He said that it was impossible and he could do nothing further to help me and hung up.

Hey Avroair; I wouldn't mind helping out, depending on the date. Might I suggest using some of those glow in the dark snap bracelets. I found a source where you can get them for about $0.10 each. You could either drop them along the trail or secure them with a piece of duct tape. I found these green ones that glow for almost 24 hrs, so you could run through the course an hour or so before it starts, and they should glow all through the night. Just a suggestion. Let me know the date and I'll try and help out.

Thank you Poppa Duck. I wasn't looking for a hard time, just some info. Your experience that day has been very helpful. From what I have read recently, this "spoofing" device in all likelihood is aimable to a degree (much like a claymore mine.) There is speculation that it can be used very much target specific also. I really wasn't looking to stir the pot and get into this big pissing match. I intend the fly that same route again in a few weeks, and I'll be watching my GPS unit like a hawk. If it happens again, I'll know pretty much exactly where and when. I'm even going to bring a backup unit that I won't turn on until some minutes after the original unit gets spoofed. Hey if I'm doing something that affects national security or something, someone please let me know. The last thing I want to do is piss off the Feds. If they monitor these posts, then they should have it figured out that already that I'm no threat to our Nation's security.

When geocaching in wooded areas that are known to be inhabited by bears, 1) NEVER walk softly. Bears have much better hearing than us. You may even want to try wearing a bear bell. It doesn't make hardly any noise, but apparently bears can hear it at a great distance. Chances are you may never encounter a bear if you wear it. 2) If you do encounter a bear, DON'T RUN AND DON'T CLIMB A TREE. Bears can run faster and are much better climbers than us. If you encounter a bear, either stand your ground or back away slowly. 3) Try desperately to NEVER get between a momma bear and her cubs. If you see cubs, move away from them as fast as you can without running. 4) If you are going to hike in the woods, don't eat anything before you go or bring a snack that will give a bear the impression that you might be good to eat. For an example of what NOT to do, DON'T smear yourself with peanutbutter and honey and then fill your pockets with sardines. 5) As an add-on to #1, Don't walk softly in the woods and forget the big stick, carry a large sidearm. You can use it to scare off the bear if he charges at you. If that doesn't work, DON'T try and shoot him, as most handgun rounds WILL NOT penetrate a bears hide. If a bear gets that close to you and it 's obvious that he is going to do you harm, I would try shoving the handgun into his mouth and empty the magazine down his throat. It may only give him heartburn, but at least you will die fighting. Also, prayer might be a good thing right about now.

Once again you insist on throwing down the gauntlet, and once again I feel compelled to bloody your nose with it. We just happened to be getting ready to transition LI from South to North, and had just passed Gabreski Airport when the GPS'rs lost all satellite reception. I would have posted my exact position had my Garmin not had it's brains scrambled. I don't blame the military for ANYTHING. I think they do a damned good job of keeping us safe from those who would do us harm and threaten our way of life. I don't even care if they spoofed our GPS units. Had we only had one on the plane, in all likelihood we would have chaulked it up to something faulty with the unit itself. The fact that they both beeped simultaneously and displayed "Lost Satellite Reception," I find that rather odd. I'm not looking for a smoking ray gun, and if our units were affected by such a device, that's OK too, because I can tell you matter of factly that it worked pretty well. I get pissed when someone tries to insult my intelligence by saying such things as "And the Long Island military base that you were flying near was???" or trying to tell me that a reservist would lose his job or worse for playing with such toys. I only posted something on this forum to see if anyone was geocaching on Long Island at about the time mentioned in my original post, and I wanted to know if they had poor satellite reception. I made no mention of the Bermuda Triangle or flying saucers, as other posters did. I'll tell you this: I recently retired from a job where you come not to believe in coincidence. I always maintain, that if you hit the lottery twice in a week, THAT is a coincidence. EVERYTHING ELSE HAPPENS FOR A REASON. For two fairly expensive GPS'rs to lose ALL reception at the same instant is no coincidence. If we were in fact "spoofed" by someone at Gabreski, I'm thankful that the technology works, and that it did no permenant damage to my GPS. And to that end, I don't want to know anything more about it. Like I tell salemen all the time, "Don't piss on my shoes and then try to tell me that it's raining." Something happened, whether spoofed or the sats were being taken down for maintenence or re-tasking or what. We even went back to the airport two days later and had the GPS units on and set the transponder on the plane to the different frequencies that the ATC's requested us to change to. The GPS units didn't even hiccup.

What I can't figure is this: I go onto this forum to try and find an explanation as to what happened. Admittedly, there are dozens of things that could cause a GPS unit to lose it's satellites. But for two fairly expensive units (a Garmin GPSmap196 aviation unit and a Garmin GPSmap60CS to both beep and lose their satellites simulaneously, that's more than a coincidence. I'll even grant you that maybe something onboard the Cessna caused the problem. But I was looking for answers, not some smarta** trying to embarrass me. I don't subscribe to all these "Big Brother" is watching theories or Bermuda Triangle crap. I was looking to see if anyone on Long Island was out geocaching on Saturday afternoon, and if they were, did they have a problem with their GPS units being able to get a lock on the satellites overhead. Instead I get Mr. Know-it-all who when I prove him wrong starts with this "I know everything, I was in the military for 30 years and now I manufacture those very GPS death rays." OH PULLEAZE Go peddle your nonsense elsewhere. I'm done talking to you jerky. In fact go feed your dog before she whips you. What a maroon.

Francis S. Gabreski ANGB Francis S. Gabreski Airport (ANGB) is located in Long Island (Westhampton Beach, Suffolk County), New York, approximately 80 miles east of New York City. It is home to the 106th Rescue Wing which operates HC-130 Hercules and MH-60G Black Hawk helicopters to provide war and peacetime aerial rescue services. The base encompasses 88 acres and contains 34 buildings; 32 Industrial and 2 Services, amounting to approximately 311,000 square feet. There is no family or transient housing. The day-to-day base population is approximately 250 personnel; however, one weekend each month the population surges to 826 in response to Air National Guard drills. And you were saying? (you can remove your foot from your mouth before you talk.) We were transitioning Long Island (South to North) between Gabreski and Long Island / MacArthur Airport.

I think I found the answer. I spoke to a tech at Garmin today, and apparently the government (military) and "spoof" your GPS if you get too close to a military base. They hit it with a radio beam that scrambles the units brains for a period of time. No long term "damage or memory loss." I don't believe in coincidence, and for two units to lose all their satellites at the same precise moment, defies all logic. So, no aliens, no flying saucers, no Bermuda Triangle, just two jerks in a Cessna Skyhawk that must have gotten too close to a military installation. God I love science and technology.

Your experience sounds similar to ours. We were flying along, when all of a sudden BAM!!! both gps units beeped "lost satellite reception." This was simultaneous, and I don't believe in coincidence. For one or the other to lose the sats, I would have a hundred reasons why that could happen. After many minutes of no reception, we got back one or two sats at a time, but never enough to get a solid lock on our location. It was very strange. Not that big brother owes us any explanation, but maybe he was re-tasking the sats or something????

There were two lighthouse caches that I did back in January, but they have both been archived. The one was for the Twin Lights of Navasink, and here is the link: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...&log=y&decrypt= I hope this helps you. Plus I saw a thread that mentioned 11??? lighthouses. I can only think of about six, and one of them I believe is now a private residence. They are 1)Sandy Hook Light, 2) Twin Lights of Navasink, 3) Seagirt Light (private residence now,) 4) Barnegat Lighthouse, 5) Hereford Lighthouse in North Wildwood and 6) Cape May Lighthouse. If there are others, I'm not aware of them. but then again, I'm no expert.

Nope, just two jackasses in a Cessna Skyhawk.

Any left? I'm interested in buying a few.

Did anyone else lose all satellite reception on Saturday 7/23/05 between approximately 1700 and 1800hrs? I was flying with a friend of mine today, and we were over the Great South Bay, (Southern Long Island) when suddenly both of our GPSr's lost ALL sats. My friend has a Garmin GPSmap196 in his plane, and I had my Garmin GPSmap60 CS. We were between Gabreski airport and Long Island/ MacArthur airport, when suddenly, we lost all satellite reception. We turned North, and when we got near the "Stacks" near Northport, LI, I started picking up one or two sats, but not enough for a reading. As we flew past the stacks going East, a few hours earlier, the sat reception was perfect. We didn't pick up full satellite reception again until we neared Lincoln Park airport. I could understand one unit or the other starting to act up, but for both to lose all sat reception at the same time, had to be more than just a coincidence. Any ideas????

Well cut off my legs and call me shorty. I have been using EasyGPS, and found it to be more than adequate. I had downloaded and installed thw GSAK, but there was something about it, without being specific, I just didn't like the feel. I have used EasyGPS on an eTrexVista and Venture, with no problems. Recently I purchased a Garmin GPSmap60 CS, and although the locs transfer over just fine, the symbols do not. I really haven't had the time to sit down and try to figure it out. What I like about the GPSmap 60CS, aside from the color display, is when you change the symbol from "geocache" to "geocache found," it automatically moves the loc over to the found database. It's pretty slick, and I wasn't aware of that feature until I purchased it. If anyone can shed some light on what I may be doing wrong, I would sincerely appreciate it. Thanks, Johnny Rotten

Awesome. You da man!!!!!

I think that you can't go wrong with the Garmin GPSMap 60CS. The display is unbelievably clear, and it can hold quite a bit of info. I can get the whole state of NJ, with little bits of NYC, Long Island and parts of PA in about 45 MB. I would think tthat depending on the detail that you need, you could get a large portion of CA onto the GPSMap60CS, using MapSource. I would suggest against putting a TOPO map on there. It just seems that the topo uses an enormous amount of memory. Unless you are a climber, or like to specifically hike mountains, I would stay away from topo mapping. I have a Garmin GPSMap60CS, and I LOVE IT!!! The quad helix antenna makes all the difference in the world.

You are an accident waiting to happen. Using a GPS like this is really meant for driving with a co-pilot. It is dangerous and foolish to be taking your eyes off the road for as long as you have to, to read this thing. Do yourself a favor and buy a Garmin Street Pilot or a Magellan unit that talks to you. They cost more, but at least you won't wind up in the back seat of the car in front of you, when it stops unexpectedly.

Certainly DON'T walk softly, but by all means Carry a BIG Stick. As long as a bear can hear you coming, you are not likely to even see one. There was plenty of great advice above, but in case I missed it when I was scrolling through, NEVER get between moma bear and her cubs. You will take a fairly passive creature and turn it into a monster. To add to the list of NO NO's by BrianSnat, Do not smear peanutbutter all over yourself and then fill your pockets with sardines. Bear Spray does work, but not as well as a .454 Casule. Dirty Harry was wrong. The .454 is the world's largest handgun. Often, the sound of a gun will send a bear running in the other direction. If it does not, then save the last two rounds in the gun. Use the second to the last as the bear lunges for you. Try to stick the gun in his mouth and squeeze off a round. If that doesn't work, then save the last round for yourself, as you are about to die an extremely violent death. The above is all a joke folks. I like wildlife and don't hunt, so please don't get your knickers in a twist.

Call Garmin. I had a few problems with two of my units, and the people there could not be more friendly and accomodating. If it is a user changeable part, they can probably just send it to you USPS.

One thing is for sure, this was no accident. To have a micro go missing is I would guess a fairly common occurence. I know of two in the last 6 or 7 months, just in this area alone. But the chance of muggles finding 3 caches and all belonging to the same owner, now we are talking exponential numbers. I said in an earlier post, I don't believe in coincidence (unless you hit the lottery twice in a week.) This is obviously the work of a rogue cacher. You couldn't possibly find those micros without the knowledge of the existance of this website AND a GPS unit. Come on folks, this is the Christmas Season and someone is not acting in a Christian fashion. (No political incorrectness intended here, and no matter who you call your God, you can still act in what could be considered a Christianlike manner.) Saylor, I'll give you credit man, I would be sooooo ticked if someone muggled my caches. Not to give the rogue cacher/Pirate any ideas, but if all of a sudden my caches go missing, I would be tempted to just walk away. And why? Because it's ONLY A GAME. And a word to the pirate: If you muggle all the caches you find, you just ruin the game for everyone, including yourself. We have to keep our heads here, and I'll telll you why. If I think Cacher A is muggling my caches and Cacher B thinks Cacher A is muggling his caches, and so on and so forth, and retribution becomes the word of the day, ALL THE CACHES WILL GET MUGGLED. Let's all at least act like responsible adults and move on and learn from this bad experience. Saylor, if you need more containers for your micros, I may be able to help you out. Just email me. ( I figure with digital cameras becoming so popular, someday I'll be able to sell 35mm film cannisters for a profit. LOL) Peace to all, and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Happy Holidays to all others. <<<That's as politically correct as I can get.

Mopar, I don't know you, and hence, I'm sure I have never complained about you or your caches. I was in that park less than a week ago, and the wall was not damaged. I went there yesterday, and there were several spots that had rocks pulled out. I will say this, it appears by their logs that the cache owner and one other cacher went there after dark. In the daylight, you can see that the rocks had clearly been pulled out AFTER the rain had stopped. There was fresh dirt on top of them. Add just a sprinkle of rain, and that dirt washes off. And I believe that it would be hard to see that in the dark. On the other hand, there were no "mower tracks" anywhere to be seen, and there was no signs of any "natural occurence" that would have pulled those rocks from the wall. The only fault that I find with the cache owner, is that if you are going to plant a cache in a busy area like this, you have to have your coordinates dead on AND you have to make the cache more or less "hide in plain sight." My first reaction was to run down there and take pictures, but then I started thinking that any photos of the damage posted on this board, can ONLY MAKE MATTERS WORSE. I say we chaulk this whole thread and cache up to experience, learn from it and move on.

I'm not looking to point a finger at anyone, but there is no way in hell that this damage was caused by a storm. I have seen retaining walls and such give way from the forces of nature, and let me tell you, Mother Nature leaves her fingerprints all over the scene of some natural destruction. For a retaining wall to give way in spots, there would have been rivers of mud left behind. That was not the case here. It looked like someone raked about the first three feet of debris off the top of the wall to the ground below. I have never seen an event where just a couple of feet of leaves and twigs were pulled off the top of something by rain water and there not be little areas where you could see where the water ran through. We had two days of rain (not unusual for this area) but the total rainfall was less than an inch. There is no doubt in my mind that someone did this purposefully, and I'm old enough to know that there is no such thing as a coincidence (unless of course you hit the lottery twice in a week.) For as many people to have scoured this place for the number of hours that it took (including the miscreant who damaged the area) there is something wrong. I have to question placing a micro cache in such a busy area to begin with. That aside, the coordinates are off and the clues stunk. And this isn't sour grapes. I have placed caches, and for my way of thinking, you place a cache in a clever spot so people can find them, not so you can have the distinction of having the most DNF's on your log page. Why not just bury a cache in some dead guy's casket, and then let all the DNF's accumulate on the page?

I went caching today in Brookdale Park, in Bloomfield, NJ. What I found, was disgraceful. The cache owner kind of prides himself on how many DNF's he can log on his cache page. I'm not blaming him for what happened, but this may very well come back to bite him and all of us on the butt. His mistakes were numerous. He planted a micro cache in or on or near a stone wall in a public park that gets a lot of pedestrian traffic. The stone wall is adjacent to a set of tennis courts. He gives instructions to be discreet, but I don't know that you could be discreet in this place with the volume of people walking through there. What I saw made me sick. Someone actually removed large sections of the stone wall, and there was debris strewn all over the place. You would have thought that a CSI team went through the place with a search warrant. So as not to be too repetitive, I'll include the link to the page below. I know the state of Colorado did not want cachers hiding caches anywhere in their parks system, now I understand why. I fear that this whole thing will come back to haunt us. Stonewall What a Racquet

Some people make me sick. I totally agree with bluehook here. I liken it to why hunters sit up high in tree stands. That's because the deer NEVER look up. Over the course of time, no natural predator of deer ever lived in trees. That's why they don't look up. Many people who hide caches do something very similar. They hide their cache and for a clue they say "It's under the "big" rock next to the "double tree." Well if they looked around, there may be many rocks next to many, many double trees. I have seen this on more than one occasion, and it is rediculous. Trust me, I am not one of these elitist types who go around and re-hide a cache in a different spot because they think their spot is better. I hate that. Nor am I one of these people who set up a bunch of decoy spots where they make cairns in a strange place or unusual configuration. All that does is encourage cachers to tear up the landscape, and that is so totally NOT what this whole game is about. I have seen cachers to that deliberate skew the coordinates so as to be misleading. How absurd. There arer so many little common sense things that people could and should do when hiding a cache, and it wouldn't add significantly to the amount of time it would take them to finish the job. Far be it for me to impose my ideals and standards on others, but I will say this, on more than one occasion I have had people write in my cache logs that the cache was well hidden and the coordinates were right on the money. If you care to indulge me, read on. First, I spray paint my cache containers in camo colors, typically in green, black and brown. This way even if part of the cache container is exposed, it isn't so obvious to the untrained eye. When I find a spot to hide a cache, I "walk" the cache from at least 4 different directions, and then I average the waypoint readings, provided that one set isn't way off. I then enter the averaged coordinates into my GPS and see how close it gets me. More often than not, it is right on the money. Now for something that is really important. DON'T DESCRIBE YOUR CACHE LOCATION IN SUBJECTIVE TERMS. What does it mean when you say "it's next to a big rock?" Look around, there may be a lot of "big rocks" in the area. If you are afraid that the elitists won't like it because your description is too revealing, then put in the description, "DO NOT DECRYPT" and then you can accurately describe the area. Like "if you approach the area on the trail and are heading in a Northerly direction, then turn to a heading of 260 degrees after you pass the rock that is about 3 feet in diameter. " That is of course if that is the only rock that size in the area. If it is in a really tough spot, take pictures and post a warning stating "SPOILER" on it so people won't look unless they are having trouble finding it. The bottom line, is that this is only a game. What I find really annoying is when people start messing with other people's caches, because they found a "better" hiding spot. For my money, your GPS should bring you right to the spot where the cache is hidden, or certainly within a few feet. I'm not above emailing the owner of a cache to make a suggestion. And I preface the email, stating that I am only trying to help. But I certainly WOULD NOT MOVE someone else's cache. It's wrong and it tantamount to pirating the cache.